The longest sea bridge in the world opens despite controversy | Smart News

After nine years, Chinese President Xi Jinping officially opened today the world's longest shipping bridge between Zhuhai, China and the autonomous regions of Hong Kong and Macao.

According to James Griffiths and Sarah Lazarus of CNNthe 34 km bridge, which spans the Pearl River delta, can reduce travel time between the three sites to 30 minutes instead of three. The bridge will be open to traffic from Wednesday, but private drivers will need a permit to cross it. And as Hallie Detrick relates to Forbes, permits are not in abundance. Only 300 permanent permits are available for Hong Kong residents making the trip to Macau and permits for Mainland China are only granted to persons meeting certain criteria, such as making a donation to a charity on the mainland or have been employed in a "recognized high technology enterprise. "Without proper documentation, drivers will have to switch to special shuttles, the price of which varies between $ 8 and $ 10 per trip, depending on the time of day.

The new structure is an impressive engineering feat, encompassing not only a bridge, but also an underground tunnel suspended between two artificial islands, which will help reduce the disruption of busy shipping routes. Some 400,000 tons of steel were used to build the bridge which, as stipulated by the violated law of the Los Angeles Times puts into perspective, it means that it "extends longer than 14 Golden Gate bridges lined up end-to-end". It would also be powerful enough to withstand an 8.0 magnitude earthquake, typhoon and cargo impacts.

The bridge is a major element of the Chinese government's strategy.Greater Bay Area ", which aims to link Hong Kong and Macao to nine major cities in the mainland coastal province of Guangdong. Officials hope to make the region a similar economic and technological center to Silicon Valley and facilitate the flow of tourists between cities. Hong Kong and Macau, a gaming destination known as "Las Vegas of Asia," are already popular holiday resorts for mainland Chinese travelers. In the first half of the year, 23.7 million and 11.7 million mainland visitors traveled to Hong Kong and Macao respectively, said Alice Yan Morning of South China.

But there are fears that the bridge will be used as a political tool in China's efforts to tighten its grip on Hong Kong. A former British colony, Hong Kong returned to Chinese control in 1997, but achieved semi-autonomous status. Although Beijing denies these accusations, it is feared that the Chinese government intends to curtail Hong Kong's independence.

"[The bridge] Hong Kong links China almost like an umbilical cord, "said Claudia Mo, a lawmaker who supports the establishment of greater democracy in Hong Kong, told CNN's Lazarus in May. "You see it, and you know that you are bound to the motherland."

From the beginning, the ambitious project got bogged down in several controversies. Seven people died during the construction of the bridge and 275 others were injured, according to Griffiths and Lazarus. During the past year, six subcontractors have been fined for endangering the safety of workers.

The Chinese white dolphin, an endangered species that was once The most abundant in the Pearl River Delta region, was also threatened by the construction of the new bridge and other development projects in the region. According to the law of Los Angeles Times"The constant burr of pounding and welding" drives animals away and destroys their habitat. A government report revealed that only 47 dolphins were seen in Hong Kong waters between April 2017 and March 2018, up from 80 in 2012.

In response to environmental concerns, the Hong Kong government has created marine protected parks for dolphins and other aquatic animals. But Heyman Mak of the Hong Kong Dolphin Conservation Society told Law that the authorities "only establish conservation areas after the start of work – it's too late".

Hong Kong taxpayers were also willing to assume 60 per cent of the costs of building the bridge. "I do not think people are too excited about it. It has been dragged for so long and so expensive, and there are already ways to get to the west side of the Pearl River delta, "said Mee Kam Ng, a professor of geography at Hong China University. Kong. guardianLily Kuo.

Another survey released today by Lingnan University and Sun Yat-sen from Guangzhou to Hong Kong reveals the mainland's interest in getting to Hong Kong and Macao more quickly. It reveals that the people of Hong Kong seem to have a much more moderate interest in the greater bay area. Of the 1,033 residents surveyed this summer, 4.7% said they went to the greater bay area, with the exception of Hong Kong and Macau, more than once per year. month in the last year; 53.9% said they did not visit the nine mainland cities during this period.

Nevertheless, as Ng says Kuo from the guardianthe opening of the bridge will certainly be of "interesting experience" as it will link three jurisdictions covering a wide range of cultural histories, currencies and legal systems.

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